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List of BECK: Mongolian Chop Squad characters
The following is a list of characters in the manga and anime series BECK: Mongolian Chop Squad. Main ; : : The main protagonist, the series follows his rapid development from living an average life to becoming an outstanding guitarist. Since he is extremely polite, he cannot help but let others push him around, a possible metaphoric stereotype on the very proper and manner-conscious Japanese society. Recruited as the last member of BECK, he serves as the rhythm guitarist and backup vocalist. He has a very beautiful voice that is mostly used for Beck's slower songs. He owns a Fender Highway One Telecaster, an Epiphone Acoustic Guitar (originally owned by Eddie Lee, used for the melody of "Devil's Way"), a Gibson SG (later giving it up for free) and a '69 Fender Mustang . He found the broken SG while working for a moving company and had it repaired. He bought the Fender Mustang in Tottenham Court following the advice of Billy Riley to "take three lines next time." There's also only one episode where he is swearing once. * * Japanese live-action movie actor: Takeru Satoh ; : A Japanese character with a long history in America (he played in a band with Eddie Lee), he speaks fluent English and frequently uses both Japanese and English in his conversations. He shares a passé resemblance to Anthony Kiedis, lead singer of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, the original mangaka's favorite band. He lives alone with his grandmother in a shack by the fishing pond. His skills and taste in music inspire Koyuki to take up the guitar. Before he created BECK, he played in a band called Serial Mama. Ryusuke not only created BECK, but is also its lead guitarist. He has a few guitars including 2 Gibson L-48 Acoustic guitars (one given by Eddie Lee and the other one he got in Queens), 2 Gibson Les Paul Custom, a B.B King Lucille (in the Manga) and the mysterious Gibson Les Paul by the name Lucille (Prudence in the American version of the anime, so as to avoid disputes with the aforementioned B. B. King signature brand), whose body has bullet holes all over it. * * Japanese live-action movie actor: Hiro Mizushima ; : Koyuki's guitar and swimming teacher, Saitou once swam in the Olympics but was unable to achieve his dream of winning, so has turned his life to teaching others how to swim better. Saitou is loud and demanding in public, and especially strict when it comes to swimming. But when he is out of the water he is much more open, even turning to Koyuki for advice on his attractions to Momoko. Saitou is a fan of British rock and his favorite band in the anime is the fictional Rocket Boys (the manga version has him liking The Beatles). Saitou's guitars include a Gretsch White Falcon, and a Gibson Les Paul Standard copy by "Tibson" (a Gibson imitation brand). Before he met Momoko, he kept nearly a library of pornographic and young female modeling magazines (which he once explained to serve as documented proof that he lived through the Showa and Heisei eras) Saitou is also shown to be muscular in his swimming attire. * ; : Ryusuke's sister and a talented singer, who becomes Koyuki's girlfriend and one of his confidantes. While at times she seems attracted to him, other times she brushes him off with little regard to his often ignored feelings. Due to her time spent overseas her spoken Japanese is somewhat lacking, and her reading skills are almost nonexistent. Her English however is supposed to be perfect - so much so, she only communicates with Ryusuke in English. * * Japanese live-action movie actor: Shioli Kutsuna ; :Koyuki's childhood friend, he eventually was left to choose between her and Maho, though by the time he reached his decision, the two girls also reached one of their own, luckily a similar conclusion. * ; : The first recruited member of BECK, Taira is the bassist, and the most talented band member next to Ryusuke. He plays a Music Man StingRay bass, as well as a Fender Jazz Bass and a Fender Mustang Bass. His attitude may sometimes come off as uncaring. He has been seen working as a traffic officer. He is the most mature person of all of the band members, often giving helpful advice. His lifestory in the manga was based from the famous Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Michael "Flea" Balzary (complete with the bleached-blond hair) and coincidentally they employ the same bass fink style. * * Japanese live-action movie actor: Osamu Mukai ; : Chiba is the main vocalist for BECK and is the key member that Ryusuke needed to bring Taira into the band. Compared to Koyuki, his voice is more punk-rock and rap oriented, singing the majority of the band's songs. Despite his looks and slacker attitude, Chiba was the top student and head of the class in his high school, which Koyuki and Saku also attend. He can also seem sensitive at times. He also named the band BECK after staring at Ryusuke's dog for a few moments. Chiba's name was mentioned in many of the band's songs. He was based on Rage Against the Machine's vocalist/rapper Zack de la Rocha. * * Japanese live-action movie actor: Kenta Kiritani ; : The fourth member to join, he was also Koyuki's first good friend, sticking with him even when the school bully, Hyodo, and his gang beat him up for breaking the silent treatment they had imposed on Koyuki earlier. Saku wanted to improve in his drumming so he went to Osaka to train. After coming back from Osaka people noticed that his playing had improved dramatically. His position in the band is the drummer, a position that Saku takes up due to influence from his brother when he was younger. * * Japanese live-action movie actor: Aoi Nakamura ; : Koyuki's music teacher in middle school, she gets to know Saitou through Koyuki and they start to develop a relationship through the series. It is known that, before teaching at Koyuki's school, she used to be a nightclub dancer as a part-time job, but quit afraid of the rumors that would have spread when one of her former students found out and blackmailed her. * ; : Originally in Ryusuke's first band as a technically accomplished guitarist in Serial Mama, he turned into his rival, and his new band, Belle Ame, was BECK's primary competition who mainly succeeded through appeal for the band member's looks and not sound. His main guitar is a Fender Stratocaster. * ; Eddy Lee : Lead guitarist of Dying Breed, he was Ryusuke's closest and best friend. Eddy does concerts and more for the sake of charity. He is said to be a better guitar player then Ryusuke is, and he is one of Koyuki's and Ryusuke's idols. Before he died, he entrusted Koyuki with an unfinished song by the name of "Devil's Way"; Beck ends up completing it just in time to perform it live in honor of Eddy. Eddy later appears in "The Dream" that all the members of Beck had. He may be based on Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam, but is more than likely based on Geddy Lee of Rush. * ; Matt Reed : The vocalist for Dying Breed, he is featured as consistently drunk and a supporter of up and coming singer Koyuki, even inviting him to the stage in their secret live concert in Japan. He shares a resemblance to the famous guitarist Joe Satriani, as well as R.E.M. vocalist Michael Stipe. * * Japanese live-action movie actor: Todd Shymko ; Leon Sykes : A very rich and extremely influential music producer of the RJ Label who produces many stars in the United States. Sykes is a mysterious character that seems to be involved in much of what goes on behind the scenes. He also bears a resemblance to Jay-Z. He turns out to be the main antagonist in the series. * ; John Lee Davis : Presented as Sykes' uncle in the manga, John Lee Davis is an old country blues man and one of Ryusuke's musical idols. * ; : Yoshito Morozumi is a school friend of Maho and a budding actor and model. He often competes with Koyuki. * ; : Manabu Miyazawa is the vocalist for Eiji's group Belle Ame. Before joining Belle Ame, he was in a band called Cloud and was a talented baseball pitcher. * ; : Masaru Hyodo is the chief instigator in a group who bully Koyuki during his middle school days. Aside from spearheading a massive silent treatment towards Koyuki, he also forced him to buy their lunch and give them money under the pretense of fixing up Rikiya's guitar, of which one of his cronies made Koyuki break a splinter off. Also, seeing him as a weakling shyster, he constantly tried to place Koyuki in the center of attention so that everyone would eventually scorn at his failures; however, seeing how talented he was in swimming and guitar playing, this plan backfired. Eventually, at the school festival, Rikiya finds out through Chiba what Hyodo had been doing using his name, and gives him a severe beating as retaliation. From then, Hyodo acquires a begrudging respect for Koyuki, and they eventually part ways on rather amicable terms at the end of their middle school periods. Hyodo is also a technically accomplished guitarist, as his father once was. In middle school, along with the rest of the instigators in the bullying group, the four create a band named Satanic Ban. He later joins a band. He owns a Fender Stratocaster. * *Japanese live-action movie actor: Dori Sakurada ; : Hiromi Masuoka is a student at the Ichieda Gakuen Private High School attended by Koyuki, Saku, and Chiba. She also worked for a period in a doughnut shop next to Koyuki's, the Seiryuu restaurant, but was fired after blundering and causing a mess (on which she does not elaborate). She is a friend of Saku and Koyuki, with whom she learns to play the guitar. * ; : Tanabe is a school friend, one of Koyuki's middle school classmates. He joined with Koyuki and Saku to play at the school festival, as singer of their band, which he named "Ciel Bleu" ("sky blue" in French). However, due to Hyodo forcing everyone to boo Ciel Bleu off stage even before they performed, Tanabe was afraid to step up (even because his girlfriend, for whom he wanted to perform, was committed to boo them off as well), so Koyuki took up the vocals and allowed his band to win the festival. His hobbies include photography, especially towards girls during their P.E. classes, keeping it as a "part of his youth". * ; : Rikiya Kitawaza is a thug attending Koyuki's middle school and a childhood friend of Hyodo. He owns a Fender Jaguar. At first, he is quite hostile towards Koyuki, because of a minor incident caused by Hyodo's gang which resulted on Koyuki accidentally dropping his guitar and breaking off a splinter of it, though it takes a little longer before Hyodo squeals Koyuki to him. He once tried to beat up Koyuki, even bending broken the guitar pick that Maho had given him, only to be beaten up himself by Chiba. After finding out that Hyodo had forced Koyuki to pay for his damaged guitar and confronting him at the school's cultural festival, however, he starts taking a liking to Koyuki and his band, later showing his support to Koyuki at Greatful Sound 5. He is also fond of Ryusuke's guitar playing, calling him the "Japanese Jimmy Page". * Animals ; Beck : A dog seemingly stitched together like Frankenstein, he has a blue portion of fur for his left ear and eye area, and his backside is Dalmatian spotted, while he has a golden coat on the rest of his body. His tail is also very thin and whips around, as opposed to a regular dog's tail. Both dogs Beck and Keith in the series are based on the dog in the film Frankenweenie by Tim Burton, and a nod to Black Jack, since the creator is a fan of both. Beck is possibly named after guitarist Jeff Beck, as it is logical to assume the creator used well known musicians as a basis for naming the animals of the series. : ; Keith : Much like Beck, Keith has a patch of blue fur on the right side of his face, his fur is a brown color, and his tail is a much darker brown than the rest of his fur. He is owned by Leon Sykes. Possibly named after guitarist Keith Richards. Keith gets shot and dies in the manga by Victor Slater. : ; Page : A cockatoo owned by Ken'ichi Saitou. Page will sing along to music but only if it is magnificent. Saitou claims that making him sing is his greatest wish. He is not able to do so in the anime; however Koyuki does get Page to sing in one episode with a tune he hums, which later becomes his first song, "Slip Out" ("Out of the Hole" in the manga). Before that, Page only cawed at Koyuki, his cries sounding like "Aho!" (idiot). Possibly named after Led Zeppelin Guitarist, Jimmy Page : It is also noteworthy to cite that Jeff Beck, Keith Richards and Jimmy Page are all named in the top 15 of Rolling Stone magazine's 100 greatest guitarists of all time http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/5937559/the_100_greatest_guitarists_of_all_time/1 References See also BECK BECK